The origin of chocolate

The earliest chocolate originated from a food containing cocoa powder of the ancient Indians in Mexico. Its taste is bitter and spicy. Later, around the 16th century, the Spanish made chocolate "sweet". They mixed cocoa powder and spices into cane juice to make a sweet drink. In 1876, a Swiss named Peter was creative and added some milk to the above-mentioned drink, thus completing the entire process of modern chocolate creation. Soon after, someone else came up with the idea of ??dehydrating and concentrating liquid chocolate into pieces of chocolate candy that were easy to carry and store.

Reference materials: /longbook/10920418865Fwanshiyoulai/532Eshtmlamp; b=0amp; a=28amp; user=baidu

The origin of chocolate

In about 500 years Cocoa has been produced in the Americas before. Cocoa is the seed of a plant. It is rich in nutrients and has unique functions. It is deeply loved by local residents. Due to its low yield and high price, and the fact that the cocoa tree is evergreen all year round, it is called "green gold".

At the beginning of the 16th century, when the great navigator Columbus set sail for the fourth time and passed through this land that produced cocoa, he was surprised to find that the fruit of a plant - cocoa, had become "currency". At the market, a slave was priced at 2,100 cocoa beans.

“Oh, this magical bean is so valuable!” Columbus, who was well-informed, couldn’t help but sigh. He used what he carried to exchange some cocoa beans with the local Indians and brought them back to Spain.

However, Europeans at that time were not interested in cocoa. They only sometimes use cocoa to refresh themselves, or use it as a diuretic.

By the late 1620s and early 1630s, cocoa was extremely popular in Europe, and demand exceeded supply. What was the reason that made Europeans recognize cocoa again?

It turned out that this was caused by a legendary story.

In 1519, an expedition led by the famous Spanish explorer Cortes entered the hinterland of Mexico. The team walked through the desert, waded through streams, and passed through dense forests. After untold hardships, they reached a plateau. The road ahead was still long, but the team members had sore backs and were exhausted. They were all lying on the bare ground in a haphazard manner. The gentle breeze blows away the fatigue from my body. They were indeed working so hard that they really didn’t want to move at all!

At this moment, a group of Indians came from down the mountain. They were almost naked and barefooted, covering themselves with leaves and grass. They held bows and arrows in their hands. Cortes hurriedly greeted them in the local dialect he had just learned.

Seeing that Cortez and the others were listless, the friendly Indians opened their bags, took out the cocoa beans, crushed them into powder, put them in the jar, put in water, and put the jar on the rack. Put on the fire until the water boils, add some sap and pepper. Suddenly, a strong fragrance spread in the air.

The Indian gestured and chattered to Cortes. Cortes finally understood what they meant: drinking the dark cocoa water in the jar could relieve fatigue.

Cortes thanked them and took the jar. He took a sip and said, "Oh, it's bitter and spicy. It tastes really bad!" Taking into account the etiquette of the Indians, Cortez and his teammates each took two sips as if they were drinking potion.

But what is incredible is that after a while, somehow, the expedition team members seemed to have received magic power, and their physical strength and energy were restored.

The extremely surprised Cortes quickly asked the Indians about the recipe of cocoa water and other information. The Indians told him: "This is the magic drink."

1528. After Cortes returned to Spain, he presented King Charles V with the "magic drink" cocoa. However, taking into account the dietary characteristics of the Spanish, Cortes used honey instead of tree sap and pepper in the prepared dressing.

“Ah, this drink is really good!” The king cheered repeatedly after drinking it. When he was happy, he also made Cortes a knight.

Since then, cocoa drinks have become popular throughout Spain. The conservative Spaniards keep the recipe for their drinks secret.

It was not until 1606, more than 70 years later, that an Italian stole the secret recipe of the drink, and cocoa drinks spread throughout Europe. After cocoa drinks became very popular in Europe, operating cocoa drinks became a very profitable industry. A Spanish food merchant named Lasco also made a lot of money.

One day, when Rasko was making a drink, he suddenly had an idea: This drink is too troublesome to cook. If it could be made into a solid food, just take a small piece and rinse it with boiling water. Or you can eat it directly from the mouth of an old friend, how great would that be!

So, Lasko tried it repeatedly. A solid cocoa drink is made by concentrating, drying and adding honey. Because the cocoa drink originated from the Mexican "Chocolate Tolu", Rasco called the solid cocoa drink "Chocolate". This is the original chocolate.

After chocolate came out, people were very unfamiliar with it. In France, it was once considered a "precious medicine." This strange coincidence is related to King Louis XIII of France.

Louis XIII’s wife, the Queen, is a Spanish princess. In 1612, the French queen brought back a bag of chocolate, a Spanish specialty, from her natal family. At that time, Louis XIII was in poor health and mentally depressed. The curious king ate a piece of chocolate. For some reason, he recovered from his illness and became energetic. Louis XIII, who was strong and handsome for his own use, believed that this was a "precious medicine" and ordered the doctor to hide the chocolate so that only members of the royal family could enjoy it when they were sick.

Until Louis XIV succeeded to the throne, his grandparents’ family brought many chocolates to congratulate him. At this time, the French figured out that chocolate was a kind of food.

The Spaniards keep secret the special preparation method of chocolate just like cocoa drinks. It wasn't until 1763, when a British businessman stole the secret recipe, that chocolate entered the UK. The British also added milk and cheese to the ingredients according to their own tastes, and "cream chocolate" was born.

At that time, although the taste of chocolate was not bad, it could not be said to be great. Because there is a problem in the production process, the cocoa powder contains fat, which makes it difficult for the cocoa to integrate with water and milk, thus affecting the taste of chocolate. In 1829, Dutch scientist Howie invented the cocoa bean defatting technology to perfect the color, aroma and taste of chocolate.

Since then, chocolate has become popular all over the world.

Reference materials: /c?word=C7C9BFCBC1A63BB5C43BD3C9C0B4amp; url=/bbs/dispbbs2Easp3Fboardid3D1626id3D145amp; b=0amp; a=10amp; user=baidu

There seem to be several opinions, I don’t know which one is true, sweat~